Stronghold Crusader 2 is the long awaited sequel to the original castle sim. After 12 years Stronghold returns to the desert with a new 3D engine and powerful Havok Physics. Crusader 2 recaptures the original game’s addictive, fast-paced gameplay and authentic castle simulation.

July 1

In addition to the release of 'The Templar & The Duke' DLC we have also released a new update (v1.0.21623) for Stronghold Crusader 2. This update, which is now live on Steam and should download automatically, fixes numerous issues reported by players in the forums and via our support site. Please visit our forum to see the full change log:

The law of the Templar is coming to the desert! The Templar & The Duke DLC adds a new Crusader Trail campaign and two AI characters with contrasting origins, values and strengths. One is a brutal newcomer who embodies the Crusades' nebulous motivations, while the other stands as successor to King Phillip from the original Stronghold Crusader. Both men desire a glorious victory in the Holy Land, with The Templar seeking to cleanse the holy land of heretics and The Duke hoping to emerge from Phillip's shadow and make his mark on the world, ideally without suffering too many casualties!

The third expansion for Stronghold Crusader 2, The Templar & The Duke adds seven missions, two AI opponents, 10 achievements, five custom shields and new castle types unique to these new Lords. It is now available for £3.99/$5.99/€4.99, with an additional 33% off for the next seven days!

New Campaign

The fierce combat in our latest skirmish trail sets a challenging new benchmark for Stronghold players. New characters arrive in the deserts of the Holy Land brimming with personality, grit and their own selfish quests to pursue. The madcap eccentricity of The Duke will scatter your senses, conventional sieges often failing to penetrate his elaborate segmented castles with unconventional layouts. Meanwhile cold steel and sturdy resistance await those who dare challenge The Templar, who recruits only the toughest Crusader soldiers into his army and rigidly-designed castles. This ninth skirmish trail demands a completely new set of strategies from players. Carefully safeguard allies, fend off bandit outposts while keeping an eye on your real opponents and eventually fight your way up a mountain to conquer our toughest final mission yet.

The Templar

Once a rank and file soldier in King Richard’s army, The Templar has since risen to power as a senior military commander in the Third Crusade. Even more resolute toward their righteous cause than his king, The Templar was promoted because of his brutal pursuit of the holy crusade and ability to indoctrinate fellow soldiers. Spending much of his military career as a foot soldier fighting in the Crusades, The Templar sees himself as a harbinger of justice from God. The Templar personifies the unwavering conviction that the Crusader Lords have in their mission and the lengths they will go to achieve it.

The Duke

Having traveled from France to 'fight the good fight' The Duke hopes to share in the glory of the holy crusade, should it succeed. In the event that the Crusaders should fail The Duke is always ready to retreat claiming he played no role in Richard's campaign, but for the moment he is present and prepared to lend his vast wealth and political standing to their cause. Blessed with a God-given right to rule, it goes without saying that The Duke had a pampered upbringing in the French Royal Court. It was here that he became the foppish and arrogant leader he is now, sheltered enough to build up a Lordly air and appearance but too distant from the battlefield or real cutthroat politics to become an effective ruler. The end result is a man who appears confident but is unsure of himself, joining the Third Crusade because he feels he has something to prove.

June 10

We’re happy to announce that the first in a new series of optimisation updates has just been released for Stronghold Crusader 2!

Development geared towards improving performance has been ongoing for some time now. Recently we reached a point where these changes could be merged into the main game code and released as an update for all players to enjoy. Today's update includes numerous ‘under the hood’ improvements, but we’ve highlighted the most noticeable ones below:

Frame Rate - CPU load has been reduced and frame rates improved, particularly in the case of machines with low specs or slower single-core performance. Most machines will see a modest improvement in frame rates in large games, many will see a large improvement.

Multiplayer – Low spec machines that were struggling in large games will now hold better frame rates and remain responsive for players. The game server will also slow down when necessary, allowing clients to stay in sync. We are still hard at work tuning this area, so expect future optimisation updates to improve performance.

Multi-Core CPUs - Work has been done to run more tasks in secondary threads and make better use of multiple CPU cores, removing periodic roadblocks from single core execution and overhead from the main game process.

As mentioned above today's update is the first in a new series of optimisation updates due for release in 2015. In addition to numerous additional optimisations currently being worked on, which unfortunately did not make the cut-off point for this release, we plan to build on the progress made thus far and address other areas based on player feedback. As a sim and an RTS, Stronghold Crusader 2 simulates and tracks tens of thousands of objects and many game systems at any one time. We will continue work to reduce the high demand this puts on players’ CPUs, particularly in multiplayer.

Thanks for your support and we hope you enjoy the new update!

Please Note: This update should download automatically when you launch the Steam client. Check the version number displayed in the bottom left corner of the main menu screen when launching the game. If the number displayed is not v1.0.21397 please restart Steam until the update downloads.

“Unique, fast-paced castle-building action the way it was meant to be.”
8/10 – Hooked Gamers

Featured DLC

The law of the Templar is coming to the desert! The Templar & The Duke DLC adds an extra Crusader Trail campaign and new Crusader characters with contrasting origins, values and strengths. One is a brutal newcomer who embodies the Crusades' nebulous motivations, while the other stands as successor to King Phillip from the original Stronghold Crusader. Both desire a glorious victory, The Templar cleansing the Holy Land of heretics and The Duke emerging from Phillip's shadow.

If you installed the game in a different location on your hard drive the ‘Special Edition’ folder will appear in your chosen location. The game’s soundtrack can also be accessed through the Steam Music Player, which can be found under the Library tab by clicking on ‘Music’.

About This Game

Stronghold Crusader 2 is the long awaited sequel to Stronghold: Crusader, the original 'castle sim'. After 12 years Stronghold returns to the deserts of the Middle East circa 1189, with a new 3D engine and realistic castle destruction powered by Havok Physics. Crusader 2 will recapture the original game’s addictive, fast-paced gameplay and authentic castle simulation.

True to its roots this new Stronghold will define old school real time strategy, combining RTS and city builder gameplay. Playing as a brutal Crusader Knight or Arabic freedom fighter, you must use a deadly array of troops and destructive siege equipment to decide the fate of the holy lands. Lead your forces into battle as either Richard the Lionheart or the Sultan of Syria in two historic single-player campaigns, with dynamic events such as tornados and locust swarms. Become the greatest Lord by managing your desert economy and seizing control of vital oases.

To dominate the battlefield you will need to command more than 25 unique unit types, mastering their special abilities. Raise morale with the Sergeant at Arms, charge in with the Sassanid Knight, use Archers to launch an arrow volley or scale castle walls with the deadly Assassin. Once your skills have been perfected put them to the test in skirmish mode or take the battle online with up to eight human and AI players. Create teams, choose different AI opponents and design your own map in the ultimate skirmish or multiplayer game!

I'm realy disappointed from FireFly's SHC2 :( ... and this again after SH3 :(First i thought "Ok its new on the market. This lags and bugs are normal and will be fixed in the next upcoming patchs"But FireFly give a sh!t to fix this lags :/The multiplayer is realy unplayable if there are 4 players having max. buildings and troops. After 1/2 year they still didnt fix this lags ..... realy realy sad. I had so much hope.. I was waiting sooo long with my review but now i cant wait anymore. They started with DLC's and forget about the big problems this game have :(

This game is again a fail cause the prgrammers dont have enought skill to get this game working. Again a waste of money :(If you want to play this game in multiplayer then forget about it. It's not the money worth.Singleplayer is somehow better playable then mp.

By the way. I have an intel E3 1231, Nvidia GTX 770 (4GB), SSD and 8 GB RAM. So my machine is not to slow to run this game with its low and old graphic^^

I was a die hard original stronghold fan and after playing SH3 decided to never touch this series again, saying that my die hard fan part took over because lets face it stronghold was boss back in the day. So I ponied up to buy this game to give it a chance, the real question here is how the ♥♥♥♥ did they ♥♥♥♥ this game up so bad? I mean I'm impressed, I dont think their is anything more that they could have done to make this game any worse!!!

Lag, bugs, complete economic balance meltdowns, more lag, more bugs, complete military balance meltdowns, more bugs for days. Take your pick, the entire game dynamic has been ♥♥♥♥ed to the point were you will feel mentally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ whilst trying to execute anything in this game.

The sad part is that they took stronghold which was a completely enjoyable game and churned out this steaming pile of ♥♥♥♥, a game nobody would play for more than 30 minutes if they werent trying to give it the chance to be half as good as the originals.

If you are thinking of buying this game my advice to you would be to spend your money on a big bag of ♥♥♥♥♥ as you will probably enjoy owning a bag of ♥♥♥♥♥ more than this game!

I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of this medieval RTS Simulation game after it being wishlisted since its initial pre-release announcement. The reviews have been a mixed bag of tricks from the start so I wanted to give Firefly Studios plenty of time to bang out any kinks in the ol' armor before launching my assault and possibly bludgeoning this game into fragmented code. After a lengthy (and sometimes exhausting) battle, the dust has settled and as my gaze reflects upon the still-burning fires, the blood-soaked desert sands, and the rubbled remains of what once was a towering and majestic castle, I muster up the strength to utter a few last words with my last breath fading away - "I strongly recommend this game..."

Ok, so why the mixed reviews?

A couple of reasons. First, this is an expensive game even after being released for almost a year. Not uncommon for many AAA titles, but let's face it - this is Steam and the majority of Steam users are known for pinching pennies and expecting everything on the cheap. Not totally unreasonable and for those who pay the hefty full price for this game, I understand why there may be some mixed feelings about it. The game is good, has a lot to offer, and is entertaining. But at the same time, there are a few bugs and issues in it still and don't appear to be getting fixed any time soon. They aren't necessarily being ignored though and Firefly Studios is still actively working on the game and new content for it. Keep in mind, Stronghold Crusader 2 is a AAA title and its normal for periodical updates to be released as major patches that address many things at once rather than a multitude of weekly updates that may address one specific element as seen with smaller indie-type games.

Many gamers who have played the original Stronghold Crusader before grabbing this long awaited sequel have been openly critical because the graphics are only slightly improved after more than a decade. Stronghold Crusader is very similar to the original, in fact, almost identical at first glance. But there are some differences - new units (and special abilities added to others), a modified economic system, a change in the housing dynamic, co-op mode for multiplayer games, an automated purchase/sell system added to the market, weather/natural disaster random events, some new AI characters (and more planned as future DLC), troop formations added and improved, and a few other changes or removed content from the original (such as the removal of moats and feasts). However, for the most part, Stronghold Crusader 2 is identical to its predecessor at a much loftier price so it draws a lot of criticism for this. So why would I give this game my recommendation?

I review games individually based on their own content and whether they offer up gaming enjoyment to its players. This game is a lot of fun and has plenty to offer. The graphics are 3-D, unlike the original Crusader game. They will not leave you with that "wow" feeling, but they are still solid and detailed for a real-time strategy sim. The soundtrack to this game is a harmonic masterpiece that injects the player with a true sense of the environment and time period. There are several different game modes and each of them offer a numerous amount of gameplay. Hundreds of hours can be spent playing without ever trying out each one. There are a multitude of buildings that can be built and a nice variety of units available. A map editor has been included for easily creating and sharing your own designs with the Steam Community. And don't forget the most popular feature - Castle Building. This is what really makes the crusader series so great. Its one of the best castle building systems in gaming and while slightly different from previous versions, it still performs smoothly and allows for simple and fun creativity to give your kingdom its own personal touch.

Gameplay Basics

In Stronghold Crusader 2 players will need to gather resources for building structures, creating weapons to train armed units, and produce enough food to support the populus. Fortifying your base is an important aspect as well, so players will want to protect their kingdom with castle walls and defensive structures like towers and traps. Naturally, you will need an army to defend your kingdom and attack your opponents. Each troop type requires specific weapons or armor to be crafted first and also have a price in gold. Gold can be earned by collecting taxes or by selling excess goods on the market. Troops can also be purchased from a mercenary post with gold. Governing your kingdom is very basic. It is based on overall happiness and there are several ways players can influence this statistic positively or negatively. To claim victory you must simply defeat all of the opposing lords on the map.

Game Modes

Stronghold Crusader 2 is packed full of gameplay content offered in a variety of game modes to ensure countless hours of entertainment. They include single player, co-op and multiplayer options. There are a variety of customization settings available to adjust the level of difficulty a player wishes to encounter, configure for team play, and map selection (in some cases). Computer AI players can be substituted or added in place of additional human players and each AI character has its own habits, strengths, and weaknesses that also influence how challenging the game will be.

Learning Campaigns - Tutorial campaigns that play out as a campaign while progressively teaching the game's concepts.Skirmish Trails - A chain of skirmishes versus AI characters that increase in difficulty as you progress.Custom Skirmish - Up to 8 players and team play. Players can be human or AI. Custom settings including map selection.Sandbox - Build your mighty kingdom in peace and without fear of being attacked from any opponents.Multiplayer - Players can either join a server from the list or host their own game and can be played individually or as teams. There is also a simple in-game text chat available by pressing "Enter."Community Maps - Skirmish maps designed by the Steam Community.

- Very expensive at full price- Still contains some minor bugs. (Not game breaking)- The graphics are stale and unimpressive for modern gamers- Updates are periodic so fixes and improvements are not quickly available

Final Thoughts:

Stronghold Crusader 2 is a very entertaining medieval RTS castle-building simulation that is packed with gameplay and will continue to get better with time as more content is added. However, it does come at a considerable price. I recommend this game to all RTS lovers, but if you're on a tight gaming budget then i would wishlist it and wait for a sale. In the meantime, you might also consider buying the original Stronghold Crusader game to get a taste of the crusader experience.

My favorite part was when the AI rebuilt their entire fortress in under one second and the AI kept repeating the same thing over and over and over and over. Luckily the game crashed to my library where I realized I had far better games. Thanks Stronghold! Lots of potential but overall lack luster